arresting the hand with which she was polishing silver. Alexandra
was only sixteen then, and mother and daughter were bridging a gap
when there was no maid at all in the Salisbury kitchen.

"Well, there was Libby," the mother answered at length, "the colored
girl I had when you were born. She really was perfect, in a way. She
was a clean darky, and such a cook! Daddy talks still of her fried
chicken and blueberry pies! And she loved company, too. But, you
see, Grandma Salisbury was with us then, and she paid a little girl
to look after you, so Libby had really nothing but the kitchen and
dining-room to care for. Afterward, just before Fred came, she got
lazy and ugly, and I had to let her go. Canadian Annie was a
wonderful girl, too," pursued Mrs. Salisbury, "but we only had her
two months. Then she got a place where there were no children, and
left on two days' notice. And when I think of the others!--the
Hungarian girl who boiled two pairs of Fred's little brown socks and
darkened the entire wash, sheets and napkins and all! And the
colored girl who drank, and the girl who gave us boiled rice for
dessert whenever I forgot to tell her anything else! And then Dad
and I never will forget the woman who put pudding sauce on his
mutton--dear me, dear me!" And Mrs. Salisbury laughed out at the
memory. "Between her not knowing one thing, and not understanding a
word we said, she was pretty trying all around!" she presently
added. "And, of course, the instant you have them really trained
they leave; and that's the end of that! One left me the day Stan was
born, and another--and she was a nice girl, too--simply departed
when you three were all down with scarlet fever, and left her bed
unmade, and the tea cup and saucer from her breakfast on the end of
the kitchen table! Luckily we had a wonderful nurse, and she simply
took hold and saved the day."